About

The Furever Home Friends

$7,222

pledged of $7,000 goal

146

backers

The Furever Home Friends are all dogs who have lived in a shelter at some point in their lives, and have either found, or are still looking, for their forever home.

Through this collection of books and toys, our mission is to raise awareness about the importance of adopting animals from shelters, and to share the stories of animals who have gone through the shelter system. Our books teach children about a variety of social issues--including adoption, animal abuse, body image, disabilities, racism, sexism, and much more--through a dog's perspective. Our stuffed animals are here to create lifelong friends for dog-loving kids everywhere.

This Kickstarter campaign will raise the necessary funds to produce and launch the first two books and stuffed animals in the series. As the business grows, we will introduce new dog characters to the collection.

Each book is an 8x8 full-color picture book. At the end of each book is a set of questions for kids, their parents, and even their dogs to discuss together, all about the book's themes and messages. Each book also includes a page at the end about the real dog the story is based on.

Every stuffed animal is approximately 12" tall, made from huggable flannel and polyester fluff, and hand-made with love. Each animal comes with a personalized adoption certificate!

Our first two books and stuffed animals feature a black lab named Allee, and a pit bull mix named Chewie.

Princess Allee

While living at the shelter, Allee dreams of being a princess. When a stylish young woman comes to adopt her, Allee thinks her dream is about to come true! But Allee soon learns that her new suburban life doesn't include castles or crowns. It includes two dog brothers that she has to learn to get along with! Can Allee learn to feel like royalty even while living the average life?

Allee's stuffed animal comes with her signature sparkly pink collar.

Smile, Chewie!

Despite Chewie's friendly personality, he's too shy to let the shelter volunteers take his picture! See, Chewie is stuck with scars on his face due to the abuse he suffered as a puppy, from a man who was prejudiced against pit bulls. Can Chewie find the confidence he needs to stand up to these awful pit bull stereotypes, and smile for the camera?

While the books are already written, in order to produce the books, we will need some money for printing and illustration costs. We will also need money for the materials to make the stuffed animals. The $7,000 goal will fund the production of about 150 books and 100 stuffed animals.

Here is a rough breakdown of our budget:

$4,500 for illustrations for the first two books (around $2,250 per book)

June & July 2017: Finish Illustration and Stuffed Animal Production, Get Books Printed

August 2017: Ship Rewards to Backers

Risks and challenges

Since our Kickstarter campaign will end in May, we're planning to have all rewards ready to ship by August. However, since a lot of the rewards are handmade items, if we end up getting a lot more backers than we're expecting, producing so many stuffed animals may take longer than expected. In that case, we will be sure to follow up over email with backers whose rewards have not yet been shipped, and keep them fully updated throughout the process, with estimated dates that they can expect to receive their products.